The Tamesis
May 25, 2026
Manila – Lawyers representing victims of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war are undeterred by his new legal team, saying their “strong evidence” against him will make it difficult for the defense to win, no matter how good they are.
Duterte recently hired Peter Haines from the UK and Kate Gibson from Australia out of his own pocket. Both are veteran defense lawyers with at least two decades of experience defending international clients, including former Congolese rebel leader and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, whose war crimes conviction they managed to overturn on appeal.
However, Filipino lawyers Gilbert Andres and Neri Colmenares have been fighting for the cause of drug war victims at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where Duterte is about to be tried for crimes against humanity and murder. They say the evidence available against Duterte will overwhelm the strength and talent of any lawyer he chooses.
“At the end of the day, this is really about facts, evidence and law. So, regardless of any lawyer’s previous case, this is a new case – Prosecutor v. Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” Andres told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
Andres, one of the victims’ co-legal representatives, along with Joel Butuyan, another Filipino human rights lawyer, argued that prosecutors had “strong evidence” that Duterte was guilty of thousands of killings related to the crackdown on drugs.
The facts remain unchanged
For Colmenares of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Duterte’s decision to reorganize the defense team will not have an impact on the case because “the facts and evidence remain the same.”
He said the strength of the prosecution’s evidence contrasted with the lack of evidence against Duterte and would be a challenge for his new defense team.
“I don’t see any evidence that he could submit to prove that he was not involved in the drug war,” Colmenares told the Inquirer. “Even if you put 10 lawyers in, it’s the same thing. The new lawyer has to deal with his client’s lack of evidence.”
A NUPL lawyer who accompanied some of the drug war victims to The Hague for February confirmation hearings said changes in Duterte’s legal team at a critical stage may have been prompted by a series of losses they had suffered.
“Duterte is not used to losing. Since he took office [Davao City] Before the mayor became president, all investigations against him ended in his favor because he had so much power. [in the Philippines]… The cards were also in his favor,” Colmenares said.
But in The Hague, Duterte’s requests for provisional release have been repeatedly rejected, as have his challenges to the ICC’s jurisdiction and his request to the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) to declare him “unfit” to stand trial due to his age and various medical conditions.
Still, Colmenares was surprised by Duterte’s decision to replace chief lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.
“I hear this all the time [change in defense counsel]but I didn’t expect that to actually happen because Kaufman, no matter what his position was, vigorously defended Duterte,” he said.
The same thing was said by Duterte’s former labor secretary Silvestre Bello III, one of six Filipino lawyers Kaufman introduced to PTC Chamber I during his confirmation hearing.
“The fact is, I was very impressed with his presentation of the former president’s defense. It was very clean, well presented, well supported,” Bello said of the British-Israeli lawyer.
“But you know, no matter how good the defense is, the ICC has predicted [the case],” he claimed.
“A trustworthy hand”
Kaufman, who formally asked Trial Chamber 3 on May 8 to allow him to resign as Duterte’s chief lawyer, said he was “relieved” that the case was “in the safe hands” of Haines.
The two worked together on the Gombo case, with Kaufman serving as legal counsel and Haynes serving as lead defense counsel during the trial. Gibson also serves as an associate attorney on the defense team.
When asked by the Inquirer whether he had provided any instructions to the new defense team on Duterte’s case, Kaufman said he was “obviously not authorized to disclose the content of such discussions, except to note that Mr. Haines, as expected, announced his intention to revisit the issue of the former president’s fitness to stand trial.”
“Indeed, the former president’s cognitive, motor and visuospatial deficits, which the defense has been working to address for more than a year, have been noted by many and are clearly evident in the written authorization given to Mr. Haines,” he added. /cb
